Team Roles

The Team Roles were developed by Dr. Meredith Belbin to identify people’s behavioural strengths and weaknesses in the workplace and are used by thousands of organisations worldwide.

Belbin® Team Roles are used to identify people’s behavioural strengths and weaknesses in the workplace. This information can be used to:

Build productive working relationships

Select and develop high-performing teams

Raise self-awareness and personal effectiveness

Build mutual trust and understanding

Aid recruitment processes

Belbin® Team Roles measure behaviour, not personality,
and so can be defined as:

A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way.
– Dr. Meredith Belbin

The Team Roles that Meredith Belbin identified are used widely in thousands of organisations all over the world today. By identifying our Team Roles, we can ensure that we use our strengths to advantage and that we manage our weaknesses as best we can. Sometimes, this means being aware of the pitfalls and making an effort to avoid them. He categorised them into nine different team roles:

PLANT (PL)

The first Team Role to be identified was the Plant. The role was so-called because one such individual was “planted” in each team. They tended to be highly creative and good at solving problems in unconventional ways.

MONITOR EVALUATOR (ME)

One by one, the other Team Roles began to emerge. The Monitor Evaluator was needed to provide a logical eye, make impartial judgements where required and to weigh up the team’s options in a dispassionate way.

CO-ORDINATOR (CO)

Co-ordinators were needed to focus on the team’s objectives, draw out team members and delegate work appropriately.

RESOURCE INVESTIGATOR (RI)

When the team was at risk of becoming isolated and inwardly-focused, Resource Investigators provided inside knowledge on the opposition and made sure that the team’s idea would carry to the world outside the team.

IMPLEMENTER (IMP)

Implementers were needed to plan a practical, workable strategy and carry it out as efficiently as possible.

COMPLETER FINISHER (CF)

Completer Finishers were most effectively used at the end of a task, to “polish” and scrutinise the work for errors, subjecting it to the highest standards of quality control.

TEAMWORKER (TW)

Teamworkers helped the team to gel, using their versatility to identify the work required and complete it on behalf of the team.

SHAPER (SH)

Challenging individuals, known as Shapers, provided the necessary drive to ensure that the team kept moving and did not lose focus or momentum.

SPECIALIST (SP)

It was only after the initial research had been completed that the ninth Team Role, Specialist emerged. In the real world, the value of an individual with in-depth knowledge of a key area came to be recognised as yet another essential team contribution.